Culture

With a plethora of crowd-funded projects in the works around the Bay Area, it's hard to know where to focus your energy (and your wallet). Well, we'll tell you. From a climbing wall on Market Street to a wearable conversation-starter to cookies with a surprise ingredient, chip in to help fund these five locally-grown projects.

Over half a million visitors from across the globe have travelled from Pier 33 to see the provocative and reflective exhibition, @Large: Ai Weiwei – and with good reason. Located on our most infamous island in The Bay, Alcatraz is the destination for locals and vacationers alike to experience a world-class affair where art meets activism.

Stroll through a nightclub setting while sipping on handcrafted cocktails at the SF Symphony’s SoundBox, an after-hours harmonic experiment in which classical masterpieces are set to a backdrop of abstract imagery by video artist Adam Larsen.

San Francisco has earned an international reputation as a city of innovators and trailblazers in the fields of technology, sustainability, and education. Individuals from all over the country flock to the Bay Area in search of like-minded individuals who are interested in revolutionizing the status quo — the new vanguard.

Before I cleaned up my act, the most time I spent in the Tenderloin was walking into, and stumbling out of, Aunt Charlie’s Lounge, the neighborhood’s drag-themed dive bar. Although I’ve survived a couple of physical altercations on these infamously colorful streets, living here has also been a bit of a pipe dream. The gorgeous historic apartment buildings, the unrestrained joie de vivre, close proximity to Union Square, public transit at a whim—it all comes together for a highly intoxicating siren song. But now, the TL is cleaning up its act, too. Apparently, others see my vision, and they’re moving in fast. Does San Francisco need another Divisa-lencia?

“I hope the viewer experiences a wide range of emotions, from thrilling to disturbing,” says artist Doug Hall, 70, whose sizzling installation, The Terrible Uncertainty of the Things Described, will be on display in the SF Art Institute’s Walter and McBean Galleries.

Seattle-born Mike Hadreas, known as Perfume Genius, is making waves with his art-pop/electronica singles, "Queen" and "I'm a Mother." After battling drug addiction and surviving rehab, his first two albums were cast off YouTube for "mature sexual content," which, of course, was the beginning of his faithful following. Now, with his new critically acclaimed album, “Too Bright,” Hadreas has salvaged his risqué reputation by toning down his sexual-identity angst.